One-step patterning of double tone high contrast and high refractive index inorganic spin-on resist

A direct one-step and low temperature micro-fabrication process, enabling to realize large area totally inorganic TiO2 micro-patterns from a spin-on resist, is presented. High refractive index structures (up to 2 at 632 nm) without the need for transfer processes have been obtained by mask assisted UV lithography, exploiting photocatalytic titania properties. A distinctive feature not shared by any of the known available resists and boosting the material versatility, is that the system behaves either as a positive or as negative tone resist, depending on the process parameters and on the development chemistry. In order to explain the resist double tone behavior, deep comprehension of the lithographic process parameters optimization and of the resist chemistry and structure evolution during the lithographic process, generally uncommon in literature, is reported. Another striking property of the presented resist is that the negative tone shows a high contrast up to 19, allowing to obtain structures resolution down to 2 mu m wide. The presented process and material permit to directly fabricate different titania geometries of great importance for solar cells, photocatalysis, and photonic crystals applications. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.